This is P.K. Wrigley. At his father's deathbed in 1932, he promised never to sell the Cubs. Unfortunately for the team, he lived up to that promise. Not only didn't he have the passion for baseball that his father William Wrigley Jr. had, he was completely indifferent to it. He didn't even attend the World Series in 1932, 1935, 1938, and 1945, even though his team was playing. Those teams from the 30s were essentially built by his father and his father's handpicked executives. The '45 team was a wartime fluke. After '45, we really saw the P.K. Wrigley effect.

While it would be totally unfair to say that this bad century is totally P.K. Wrigley's fault, it's hard not to point a finger at him. He owned the team from 1932-1977, during which time the most powerful team in the National League became the laughing stock of baseball.

The Just One Bad Century staff will be exploring some of those decisions this year, and you can judge for yourself whether or not you agree with our conclusions. Each story is worthy of it's own day, so come back every Wednesday this year and read our "Tales from a Bad Century." P.K. Wrigley will have the starring role in many of our tales.

We'll tell you the who, what, where, when and why about some of the most ridiculous baseball decisions in history. Among them...

*Joe DiMaggio? Who needs Joe DiMaggio?
*Minor league teams? Who needs 'em?
*Minor League instructors? Who needs 'em?
*Lights? Who needs lights?
*Hiring a seafood salesman to be GM
*Hiring a concessions director to be GM
*Hiring an evil eye to psych out opposing pitchers
*The College of Coaches

That's just the tip of the iceberg. For twenty years in a row, under P.K. Wrigley, the Cubs never finished higher than 5th place (1947-1966). After you hear the tales of what went on during some of those years you'll understand that it wasn't just bad luck.

It was P.K. Wrigley.

Charlie Grimm, a man who managed for him three different times, explained Wrigley's helping hand this way: "Whatever we said in the meetings, he'd always say, 'No that ain't right, let's do it this way.' He's absolutely wrong about everything."

Then again, it's not fair to blame the whole bad century on this one man.

He's only responsible for 45 years.